VHL Draft Busts: S86 to S90

[Alex 3,340]

With the draft right around the corner, I thought it would be a great time to look back at some notable draft busts from S86 until S90. I laid out a couple of guidelines, first of all the pick had to be before the draft fell off, there had to be somewhat high expectations for the player at the time of the draft, and we’re putting more of a focus on the order players were drafted than the round.

 

Season 86

Player: Rex Wolffe Gregor

Team: London

Pick: 5^th Overall

The season 86 draft was an interesting one and there were a few options. Elias Lampi had an underwhelming career early on, but one massive season and several awards including the Labatte removes them from consideration. Rick Grimes, the 10^th overall pick retired early and never had a point per game season (this was a very close runner-up). Notably the S86 draft was a strong goaltending one, and of the goalies drafted Ash Sparks was drafted 1^st (6^th Overall), had the lowest TPE, and never won a cup, they did have a good career overall though.

Rex Wolffe Gregor on the other hand was a top 5 pick, and while they were a serviceable 2^nd defenseman, they never really developed into the number one defenseman that they were drafted to be. Gregor did have 2 seasons where they had more than a point per game, but things just never really fell into place for them throughout their entire career.

 

Season 87

Player: Keno Akara

Team: Moscow Menace

Pick: 11^th Overall

The Season 87 draft had 3 very notable options here. Hannibal Barca, only played in three VHL seasons, where they only had 45 points, and Tim Riggins who while they went IA shortly after their draft, they did manage to play 8 seasons.

Keno Akara was the only notable player from this draft who never played a VHL game, so there really isn’t much to talk about here.

 

Season 88

Player: None

Team: N/A

Pick: N/A

Bit of a hot take here, but there really wasn’t any busts in the season 88 draft. There was a few 1^st round picks that didn’t amount too much, but all were towards the end of the round and there really wasn’t any players selected after that would jump them, especially when you take into account expectations at the time of the draft.

 

Season 89

Player: Zyn Westwood

Team: New York Americans

Pick: 5^th Overall

In stark contrast to the S88 draft, S89 had almost too many choices. Most notably the 3^rd overall pick, Montgomery Burns, who was selected 3^rd overall, but never developed to meet the hype and became a career depth defenseman. Pope Francis, was selected 8^th overall, and just never met the expected level and retired after S93. Lastly, Otis Boudreaux Jr had almost an identical career to Pope Francis and just never materialized into anything.

Zyn Westwood on the other hand was selected 5^th overall, and did have a long VHL career, however that was only as filler on rebuilding teams, which led them to never play in a VHL playoff game and just have an extremely underwhelming career as a whole.

 

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